switch(10)

Switch

            The next day

            “Give it up.”

            The old man sighed and looked away. He put the stick on the table and walked away.

            “Billiard is never my thing,” he said. “I’m quitting.”
            “Then, watch and learn, Kenji,” a man with white shirt said as he took the stick. He aimed for a black ball on the middle of the table and smirked. The old man looked at him for a while, then he sighed and poured some of his Jack Daniels whisky into the shot glass.

            “The eight ball, as always.”

            “Shut up,” the man said. “As I said, watch and learn.”

            He closed his left eye to focus on the ball.

            “Where the hole is…”
            He leaned down and pushed the ball forward with the stick. The ball rolled on the green table, then it got into the hole in front of it. The man smiled, satisfied, and stood up.

            “That’s where you should aim,” he said. “Can I have a glass of that, please?”
            “Feel free,” the old man said as he drank up all of the whisky in the glass. The man smiled and pulled a seat in front of the old man.

            “Things aren’t looking up, right?” the old man asked as he poured some of the whisky into the shot glass. “Situation isn’t going to be soft to us.”
            “My, old men worries about everything,” the man said. “You shouldn’t worry at all.”
            The old man looked at him sharply as he took out another shot glass out of nowhere.

            “Really?”

            The man poured some of the whisky into the new shot glass as he looked at the reflection of himself on the glass.

            “By the way, what’s the time?”
            “A quarter to six.”

            “No wonder,” the man said as he stood up. “I have to go home. One last drink, then I’ll leave.”
            “Fine,” the old man said. “What have I told you, you shouldn’t have got married.”
            “You don’t understand,” he said as he put the bottle down. “My wife wakes up at something like eight everyday, since she’s not that busy. While I go to work and stay up all night with you guys.”
            “You only live once,” the old man said. “And that’s the way you enjoy your life?”
            He leaned back to his chair and took out a cigar from his pocket.

            “Come on, quit working,” he said. “Aren’t women the easiest to fool?”

            “Oh, don’t worry, she knows about this,” the man said. “But she thinks I’m not active. So I come here when she’s already asleep.”

            The old man lit his cigar and put down the lighter. The man drank up all the whisky at once, then he put down the glass and sighed in relief.

            “My, that feels good.”

            The old man sighed and looked away.

            “Seriously, I don’t understand the new generation…”
            The man stood up and turne away.

            “Why don’t you come today,” he said. “Let’s wait together.”

            He walked away as he took out a cigarette and lit it. The old man watched him leave, then he took the bottle again.

            “Wait for what?”

            The man turned back and smiled.
            “That’s why you should come…”

            0900 hours

            William rolled again on his bed. He knew it was already late, but he didn’t seem to care. His stomach was grumbling but he closed his eyes and acted as if he didn’t hear it although his stomach has started to hurt.

            “You will always be watched, just like how your shadow follows you…”

            William closed his eyes even tighter, but the sentence kept echoing in his mind.

            That’s how I lived all the time by now. Trying to run from something I can’t run from.

            He could feel his stomach grumbled even more. He didn’t eat last night – he suddenly lost his appetite.

            “Just like how your shadow follows you…”

            “My!”
            He suddenly sat up and threw away his blanket. He stood up angrily and hit his head to the wall.

            “This is almost…”

            He could feel his knees became weak as he clenched his fist. He slowly fell to his knees as he bit his lower lip.

            “Killing me…”

            1100 hours

            The old man sat down on the edge of the dock as he lit his cigar. He looked around and noticed that the sea was crowded with ships that day. He sighed and looked away.

            “And what is that brat planning himself…”
            “Talking to yourself?”

            The old man turned back, surprised to see the young man with white shirt was standing behind him. He sighed and looked away.

            “If it wasn’t for you, I couldn’t have come and must be playing chess with my friends…”

            The young man chuckled as he sat down next to the old man.

            “Some coffee?”
            “No, thanks.”

            The man took out a brown can from his plastic bag and opened it.

            “What are we doing here?”
            “As I said, waiting.”
            “I hate waiting.”

            “Haha, old men…”
            The old man looked away, annoyed. The young man drank some of the coffee, then he put the can next to him.

            “You’re not at work?”

            “This is my work…”
            “Watching the ships?”

            The young man shook his head, then he leaned forward until he looked like he was going to fall soon.

            “Not exactly,” he said. “I operate the cranes. Something I’ve been doing for something like ages…”
            He then smiled and looked up to the old man.

            “But it’s fun,” he said. “It’s like the kind of game in the game centres, where you try to get a doll by moving a claw.”
            “Wow,” the old man said without any interest. “You must be good at playing that, then.”
            “Dolls and container are two contrary things,” he said. “You can’t just say it’s the same easy or difficult. But I think…”
            He took the can again and drank some more coffee.

            “Dolls are more difficult to catch,” he said. “Since they’re soft and they’re not very much geometric. Containers are always, either cubes or blocks…”
            “Aren’t those two shapes boring?” the old man asked. “Dolls are easier to grab.”
            “If you don’t have to decide where to claw precisely, it’s difficult,” the man said. “Never claw the head, or the foot, but claw the body. Especially the back, because the hands are bothersome…”

            “Not interesting.”

            “It is with my fellow workers.”
            The old man sighed and looked away to the ship that seems to be docking near a crane.

            “Duty calls…”
            “It’s not my shift,” the man answered. “I work again at around 9 at night. So I work from five till eleven…”
            He paused and threw the bottle away to the sea. It floated for a while, then it eventually got heavy with water and drowned.

            “Then, from nine till one,” he said. “Then, I come to see you guys.”
            The old man sighed and looked up to the cloudy sky.

            “I don’t understand how you can enjoy life…”
            “Oh, I have my own way to do that…”

            He could suddenly hear something like footsteps behind him. He looked back and saw a silhouette became bigger.

            “My, there he comes,” he said. “Can you just…”

            The turned to the old man and smiled.

            “Do the talk for me? I’m not good at it…”
            “My, you are, you are such a good talker,” the old man said. “You go. I’ll wait here…”
            “No, if I go, you must go with me…”
            The old man gave the man a cold look, but the man then stood up and walked to the silhouette. The old man looked at him for a while, feeling annoyed, but then he sighed and stood up.

            “I thought you’re going to just sit there?”
            “I can’t do that while you’re having some fun.”

            The man smiled as he kept walking, then he stopped at his place, followed by the old man. He turned to the younger man and sighed.

            “What now…?”
            “Let’s just stand here,” the man said. “He’s going to reach this place very soon…”

            The old man looked at the man, who was smiling, and he could feel something inside him was annoyed. He turned to the silhouette and he could feel his heart beated faster.

            “This do bring back memories, Kenji…” the man said. “Do you remember him?”

            The old man could suddenly feel like he was pulled back into something upon seeing the silhouette. A thin boy with black hair was walking to him frantically while holding on to a man with white suit.

            It was the same exact boy.

            He could suddenly felt like something was choking his throat. He looked at the man more closely as he stopped a few steps from them.

            “You’ve grown…”

            1700 hours

            Tracy rushed into the library as she fixed her collar. She stopped a few steps from a shelf filled with new books and looked down to herself. She pulled down her pink hoodie and smiled. It was fine now. She looked around, trying to find someone, but then she smiled and walked away.

            “Let’s see…” she said. “I think I should borrow some more books to read…”

            She stopped before a shelf and looked around. There were colourful books around her, mostly novels. She then noticed a man with blue jacket and jeans reading a few steps from her. She quickly recognized him, then she walked to him and touched his shoulder. The man turned back to her and smiled.

            “Hi, hummingbird…”
            “You’re here, as usual,” she said. “What’s up?”
            The man smiled and turned to her. He closed his book and showed it to her.

            “This is one interesting book,” he said. “You should read it, too.”
            “I’ll borrow it after you,” she said. “By the way, what’s wrong?”

            William looked up to her for a while as he could feel his heart beated faster. He sighed, then he turned to the shelf and put the book on an empty slot he left.

            “Will…?”
            He turned to her and forced out a smile.

            “Let’s break up…”